Lockport District 205 4-year candidates share views on financing building costs, future renovations

Residents of Lockport Township High School District 205 got an opportunity to meet some of the candidates running for the district’s Board of Education on Tuesday night.

The LTHS 205 Foundation hosted the candidate forum in the East Campus auditorium with Ann Lopez-Caneva, Candace Gerritsen, Ron Farina, Paul Lencioni, Eric Nush, Michaelene O’Halloran, James “Jay” Roti, James Shake, Wendy Streit and Michael Deane.

Candidates Lou Ann Johnson, Lance Thies, Theresa “Tammy” Hayes, Thomas “Tommy” Hill and Scott Nyssen were unable to attend.

During the event, the candidates were each asked the same five questions about their views on their priorities for the district and their approaches to budgetary issues by moderator and foundation member Keri McCormick.

Voters will be asked to choose four candidates among Gerritsen, Lencioni, Nush, Roti, Streit, Deane, Johnson, Hayes, Hill and Nyssen for four, full four-year terms in the April 1 election.

Candace Gerritsen

Gerritsen has been serving on the District 205 board since July 2024 when she was appointed to fill the vacancy left by the death of board member Sandra Chimon-Rodgers.

She has volunteered with District 205 and Will County District 92 and has 10 years of experience as the chief operating officer of a statewide nonprofit.

Gerritsen said she “is dedicated to balancing educational excellence with financial stewardship and transparency to ensure LTHS students are well-prepared for life after graduation.”

Throughout her answers she praised the district’s effort to increase advanced course offerings and career and technical education programs, as well as the district’s commitment to communication and transparency with the public.

On budgetary issues, Gerritsen said she wants to keep the tax rate low while still encouraging innovation within the schools. She said that a priority for deciding if spending should be approved on items is if they are beneficial to all students.

While she admitted she has never before been party to a collective bargaining situation such as teacher contract negotiations, she said she believes it is important “to approach the process in good faith” and “to treat all parties with respect and empathy throughout the process.”

Paul Lencioni

Lencioni is the father of two Lockport District 205 students and is a member of both the choir boosters the Facilities Master Planning Advisory Committee for the district.

Lencioni works as an architect and project manager, something he believes would bring valuable experience to the board as the district faces the need for building renovations in the near future and for budgeting purposes.

“I’ve spent my entire career working with construction budgets,” Lencioni said. “People always ask ‘can we do this? Can we do that?’ and I say ‘it depends on how much you want to spend.’ You need to decide what’s important and design the project around that goal.”

Lencioni said the board should look at potential projects and evaluate how they support teachers and students when prioritizing its spending. He also suggested that contract negotiations should be seen as about more than just money, but also benefits and working conditions including class size.

Lencioni praised the district’s crisis response to the ceiling collapse in October 2023 and how quickly District 205 and Lincoln-Way High School District 210 got the students back into their classrooms, as well as the financial management of the district.

He said the current school board has done a good job of being financially sound. “Which is good because there’s a lot of upgrades that are going to be needed soon, and after the referendum failed the money has to come from somewhere,“ he said.

He said the district cannot ignore it has aging buildings and ‘we need to make sure they’re viable with the means we have.”

Eric Nush

Nush has worked in the education field his entire career and currently is the director of technology at Homer School District 33C.

Nush focused on fiscal responsibility through his answer, noting that in his current role he is responsible for a $3 million annual budget, of which he can “explain every cent spent.”

“There are some things you just have to pay,” he said. “That’s how it goes. What we need to then do is to look at the smaller things and see where we can find long-term savings.”

He noted that those savings may be needed to address concerns about Central Campus.

“The renovations we’ve made in the last few years are amazing,” Nush said. “Our area has some of the nicest schools I’ve ever visited, but we also have Central and that’s now where our focus needs to be.”

Nush said there are “hard choices” that need to be made regarding the future of the campus and that there are pros and cons on both sides.

No matter what the district chooses “we’ve got to find the money somewhere,” he said.

On the issue of academic achievement Nush said “what matters most is student success” but he said that that isn’t necessarily measured accurately by test scores.

“I can’t tell you what I learned in most my math or English classes in high school,” he said. ”Back in high school, success for me was being able to speak in front of a crowd of people, and look what I’m doing here now. Everybody wants scores to be higher, it’s in need of focus, but it’s not the only measure of student success.”

James “Jay” Roti

Roti is a local business owner whose youngest daughter is currently a senior at Lockport East Campus.

Roti said his main reason for running for the board is because of a “decline in proficiency standards” and a “disconnect between the school and the community.”

Roti also registered to run for the village board of Homer Glen for 2025, but was removed from the ballot because the offices are considered “incompatible” under state rules.

When asked about the conflict, Roti denied the offices were incompatible.

While regularly returning to his point about low test scores, Roti compared the district’s performance to Lincoln-Way and Lemont, despite Ron Farina’s objection that the comparison is unfair given District 205’s higher percentage of low-income students.

“We should be comparing ourselves to other districts!” Roti declared, before suggesting that the district is “not spending money in the right areas.”

Roti said that since Lincoln-Way spends a lower per-student average annually and teachers make slightly higher salaries, Lockport District 205 needs to reassess its spending.

He also said that the board has “relinquished its responsibility” by allowing district staff to handle collective bargaining meetings.

Roti did say that “the (advanced placement) program is preparing kids well for college,” even as he claimed test scores “showed students aren’t being prepared.”

Roti also said that he would “like to see more parental involvement at the schools” and that the district should “increase its athletic opportunities.”

He proposed the formation of a PTO and that the district’s undeveloped Homer Glen property should be used for athletics.

Wendy Streit

Streit, the wife of Lockport Mayor Steven Streit, is an English teacher at Valley View School District in Romeoville and Bolingbrook. She has taught as an adjunct professor at Joliet Junior College and Lewis University. She is also the chair of the Lockport Summer Art Series.

“I bring 30 years of education experience to the table,” Streit said. “I love education and I understand what our children need, and I want to ensure we’re responsible with our money and how it’s spent.”

Streit highlighted her experience on the union negotiation teams at Valley View, stating that budgeting and collective bargaining “can be done respectfully and in an organized manor.”

She noted that it is an “incredibly competitive time for teachers” and argued “it’s necessary to find a respectful way to work through the process and be responsible with community resources.”

Similarly, she said spending on classroom materials and programs should be reviewed “to ensure we’re getting the best for our students.”

To that effect, she praised the district’s career and technical programs as well as the internship opportunities the school has made available to students, including through a partnership with the city, and suggested that “we need to focus on making sure the curriculum is professional grade.”

Streit said the most important thing is to “ensure our students, when they leave, that they’re equipped to function in a way that they’ll be successful, impactful citizens.”

Michael Deane

Deane is a longtime Lockport resident, former UPS driver, and a Vietnam War veteran.

He cited concerns about decreasing test scores and changing student behavior as his reasons to run for the board.

“I’m seeing a change in our students,” he said. “Kids come out of school and don’t even know what a soldier is or know what the flag is. We should be teaching them history from the time they are 4 years old and we should be teaching the damages of communism. I was in Vietnam. We fought communism, now it’s here.”

Deane emphasized that the district should be supportive of teachers dealing with student behavioral issues and providing materials for students, even suggesting that security cameras could be put in classrooms to help “find out who is fooling around.”

“We need to look at what teachers actually want to get the best pupils possible,” he said. “Money comes last, what teachers want is first.”

At the same time he argued that the residents are not getting their money’s worth from the education system if test scores remain low.

Deane argued that the school should make more effort to involve parents in the education process, noting that students whose families worked with them during the Lockdowns “came out fine” and saw better academic results.

“Kids produce better when there are parents involved with the teachers,” he said. “We need more involvement from families.”